The Many
by signourney
Summary: A collection of one-shots about the minor fairies of Winx Club - 3. After messing up, Kyral doesn't want to head into the libary of Alfea...
1. 1

**The Many**  
A collection of one-shots about the minor fairies of Winx Club inspired by the word of the weeks at various writer facebook groups. This does not mean this will be updated every week though. J This is mostly meant for me as practice. There is no huge plot. These are standalones.

The word was _screech._

In no particular order. Not set in any particular season unless specified.  
I do not own these characters. This is just my view on them.

1.  
With a soft sigh Lin Poo dropped herself onto the edge of her bed in the pink painted dorm room. Certainly not a color she would have chosen for the room if she would have had a choice in it. Lila or maybe some yellow would have been nice. Or even a neutral color like white would have been better in her opinion. But the students of Alfea had no choice when it came to the colors of the walls and curtains. Luckily at least they were allowed to decorate the dorm with things from home like furniture and paintings. It wasn't that she disliked pink, but almost everything at Alfea was pink. It had certainly taken some getting used to when she had arrived at the college for fairies almost a year ago. Man, was it that long already? Time was flying right on by.

She bend down to reach under her bed. Her fingers found a pair of sneakers. Right where she had left them yesterday morning.

It was still early morning and Lin Poo guessed not many other students would be up. But she liked to get a timely start. Best way to get the most out of your day. She liked to go for early morning runs. The nature around Alfea was great to go in a run for. Sometimes she would go for a run with Kaie. It was nice to run with someone else for a while. Even if Kaie could complain loudly about her fast pace a lot. Lin Poo always told her that if she could still talk she couldn't be that out of breath and probably could run harder if she would just keep quiet. Once in a while that shut Kaie up. Most times she continued to complain loudly.

She pulled the sneakers from under her bed and put them on the ground in front of her. She loosened the laces and slipped her white sock clad feet into them. Putting one foot on the edge of the bed, she started tying the shoe laces. Half a minute later she started on the second one. Though she had many different sneakers, she preferred her bright yellow sneakers to run in. They had the most comfortable footpads. Getting sore feet from running early in the morning was not something she liked to have if she had to run around Alfea the rest of the day. Especially if she was going to wear a pair of her boots or heels. Nobody ever said it was easy being a lady.

With a soft groan she stretched out her legs before standing up. From her nightstand she grabbed her silver, round music player that she clipped at the edge of her sweat pants. It was small so it did not bother her when she ran. For that reason she had also tied back her light purple hair into a braid though her bangs on the side always sprang out.

She placed the red head phones around her neck. Red wasn't her color but her own head phones had broken last week. Well broken… Bigfoot Karina had stepped on them after they had fallen out of her bag. Musa, one of her class mates and the fairy of music, had kindly lend Lin Poo a pair of her own. Lin Poo was very grateful for that. She loved to listen to music while running. And she certainly wasn't rich enough to buy new ones.

She pressed the large button on her music player. Music boomed from her head phones immediately. With a wince she searched for the button to decrease the volume. In her hurry and clumsiness her finger found the increase volume button first.

"Crap," she muttered. Finally she found the right button and she quickly decreased the volume. Oopsies. Now hopefully…

The groan coming from the bed behind her told her she had been too late though.

She turned around. "Morning Luna," she whispered apologetically.

The fairy in bed was not amused as she scowled at Lin Poo. "There is no point in whispering now," she bit out. Her dark green hair messily stood up on her head.

"Sorry," Lin Poo said. "I tried to be as quiet as I could be." Another groan reached her ears. "I'll let you sleep now."

"Please," Luna said as she pulled her pillow over her head while trying to snuggle further into her covers.

Her roommate was normally a very friendly and somewhat optimistic girl, but she could become very cranky when woken up too early. The fact that Luna had trouble falling asleep at Alfea didn't help matters either. It had certainly caused some friction in the first few weeks they had roomed together and Lin Poo had gotten up early every morning. Things were considerably better between them now. Lin Poo considered Luna one of her closest friends.

Softly she opened the bedroom door. Just as she was about to head out of the room a loud screech could be heard from nearby.

Luna shot up right in her bed. Her dark eyes had narrowed. With a growl she pulled back her covers that fell onto the ground next to her bed. She jumped out of bed and stomped out of the bed room, nearly elbowing Lin Poo, who still stood in the door way, on her way. Lin Poo was fortunate she could jump out of harm's way.

Quickly Lin Poo followed Luna out of the common room of their dorm room that led to two other duo bed rooms.

Luna's walking was brisk and determined. She pulled the door open that lead to the hallway. "What. Was. That?" she bit out each word separately.

In the middle of the hallway they saw Sandra, a tall blond and their class mate, cowering against the wall. She pointed to the floor near their door. "M-Mouse."

"A mouse?" Luna looked exasperatedly at Sandra as if she couldn't believe this was the reason the other fairy had screeched.

Lin Poo glanced in the direction that Sandra was still pointing at. Near one of the pink columns a small grey mouse was scurrying on the floor.

Slowly more doors of the hallway opened in their vicinity to see what this early morning commotion was about. In the dorm room opposite of them, Katy peaked around the corner with a sleepy head. "What is going on girls?" she asked before yawning widely.

Luna crossed her arms in front of her chest, still not looking very pleased. "Apparently Sandra had to screech because she saw a mouse."

Katy looked questionably until Lin Poo pointed her in the direction of where the mouse still was scurrying over the ground. "There."

The fairy of felines stretched out her lean body before stepping out of the comfort and warmth of her own dorm room and onto the cold floor of the hallway. Bare-footed and in her night gown she walked over to the mouse. As Katy neared the mouse it tried to run. With a swift, almost cat-like movement she pounced on the mouse and enveloped her hands around the creature. " I got the mouse." Katy grinned at the other girls as she turned back to them.

"Nice," Lin Poo commented.

Sandra slowly attached herself from the wall slowly, sneaking glances at Katy's hands. Then a blush reached her cheeks. "I'm sorry I woke you guys," she said embarrassed while looking down to the floor.

Around them doors started closing again. Having seen Katy grab the mouse, most of the other girls didn't think it was worth missing any sleep time over. Luna was still feeling much the same.

"No biggie," Katy said, a grin still playing at her lips. "Crisis diverted."

Luna let out a big sigh. "Yeah well. It is okay." It was clear though that this took a lot out of her to say. Her lips were a thin line and she was eager to return back to her warm bed.

Lin Poo was looking at Katy's hands. "How did the mouse get in here though?" she pondered. "We don't usually get vermin within the walls." It was true. In the forested area surrounding Alfea a variation of different animals lived. Most shied away from the fairies. Vermin like mousses and rats had made it their habitat too. But Alfea was well protected and none of the four girls had seen nor heard of any vermin within Alfea's walls.

Katy hesitantly looked at her hands, peaking though the small creases between her fingers at the mouse. It was softly squeaking. Then she looked back up at the other girls.

Finally Lin Poo said what they all were thinking. "Maybe someone's spell went wrong?"

"You think it is one of our girls?" Sandy asked her, her hazel brown eyes grew large.

"Wouldn't we have heard something about this?" Luna asked as she leaned against the doorway.

Lin Poo considered this. "Not necessarily, if it happened during the night."

Katy shrugged. "Or it could be that one of those specialists thought it was funny to drop a mouse off here. Some do come on Alfea grounds." Though none of the girls said it they did think of the specialists that were often seen around Stella and her friends. They frequented Alfea more than any of the other specialists. "Or one could have honestly gotten in on its own. Who knows."

"True," Luna said, sounding as if she very much wanted this conversation to be over.

"What are you going to do with the mouse?" Lin Poo asked Katy.

Katy regarded her hands again. "I think at this hour I will take her to Griselda," Katy answered. "She'll be able to see if this is through a Metamorphosimbiosis or just a mouse without waking up Wizgiz." The head of discipline, Griselda, was known to be up early when she knew students would be up early to go running for instance. Despite being very strict and being a constant source of exasperation amongst the girls, partly they recognized that Griselda did care about them in her own, strict way and felt responsible about all her students.

"Oh crap!" Sandra yelled loudly before putting a hand in front her mouth. "The essay I am suppose to finish. Sorry, " she whispered before quickly walking to her dorm room, a few doors away from where the others were standing, and slammed the door shut behind her. The three of them winced as the slam resounded through the hallway.

Katy shook her head. "She is such a spaz," Taking a few steps closer to Lin Poo, she winked. "I love the yellow attire by the way." With that she walked away from the other three girls into the hallway, off to find Griselda.

Lin Poo blinked before feeling slightly uneasy now that Luna was clearly taking in her running attire.

"I never noticed before how bright the yellow of your sweatpants is," Luna commented, staring at her sweatpants with a raised eye brow. "The banana is a real improvement from the smiley you had before." She was referring to the image that was on her white crop t-shirt.

Lin Poo rolled her eyes at her friend as she took a hold of the head phones around her neck. "I am going for my run now." She was glad that her friend seemed to be in better spirits than moments before.

"Good luck," Luna said. "I shall attempt to get some more sleep." She turned to head back into the dorm. "I'll see you at breakfast," She called over her shoulder, maybe a little louder than was needed.

Before she closed the door Lin Poo could hear Luna muttering about how the other four fairies of their dorm had not seem to have woken up from all the noise. Shaking her head at this, Lin Poo put the head phones over her ears and pressed play.


	2. 2

**The Many**  
\- The word was _huskily._

\- This is the Alice that appeared in season 2 for the first time.

\- Thank you to MaidenofSunlight and guest1234 for the reviews.

2.

The figure looking back at Alice in the mirror pleased her. She was slowly pulling a brush through her dark blue hair. Her wavy hair was partly hanging over her shoulder so she could brush it more easily. Cool gray eyes looked back at her from the mirror, her delicate face framed by two curly bangs. Her mother had always said she had the looks of a princess. Her father still called her his little princess, though she was sure that many fathers called their daughters that. It was still nice though. Her looks were always something she was very proud of. Perhaps that made her vain.

She put the brush down on the dresser next to the mirror. With bare feet and in her night gown she padded to the window. The sky had already turned dark, ready for the night. With longing she looked outside onto the courtyard. Various students were walking around. As it was weekend, Friday night, their curfew was later than during the week. Many of the other girls were out in Magix, meeting with specialists or dancing in a club. It was why she was alone in her dorm room.

This she had chosen herself. The other girls had invited her but she had not felt like going. What was the point? It was not like he would be there. The girls she saw daily anyway. Not him. She had been lucky to have seen him briefly once a week in the last few weeks.

Thinking about it angered her a little and she pulled the curtains close with more force than was necessary. One should not be feeling angered when thinking about their boyfriend she felt. Yet she could not shut this feeling of anger and even disappointment out. She wanted to understand and the logical part of her did. Of course she knew that he had to study and train hard to be able to pass this year at Red Fountain. The emotional needy part of her wanted him by her side every second of every day whether this was realistic or not. It wasn't that she didn't trust him or thought he was out meeting other girls. She knew Jared well enough to know he would never do that. She just missed him.

She did know that she had seen too little of him these past few weeks. Even their contact through phone and texting was scarce. When you barely saw one another, were you truly in a relationship then? She didn't think so. It was so frustrating that yesterday she had yelled at him through the phone when he had said he had to hang up. Part of her regretted that now. He had never raised his voice to her. Though it had yielded the result that he had promised they would call every night now.

In fact she was planning on calling him now.

With a sigh she dropped herself on her back onto her bed. Her covers felt warm and soothing. She reached for her phone on her nightstand. By touch the baby blue phone activated. With her thumb she scrolled through her contacts list until she found his name. Jared. She supposed she should have him on speed dial, but she had never used that before and she felt no inclination to start using it.

She pressed call and waited for Jared to answer. This took him a little while.

"Hi." Jared answered huskily.

A smile played on her lips. He must be pleased she called if he sounded like that. "Hi sweetie." She pulled up her knees. "How are you?"

"Okay," he answered. "Training hard. You?"

"Poor you," she commented. "I'm good. I think I failed my test this morning though," she said with a frown.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice sounding raspier every word he spoke.

"I should have studied harder," Alice pursed her lips. Maybe if they hadn't fought on the phone last night she might have been more prepared but she decided against saying that. Which reminded her; "I'm sorry about yesterday. I shouldn't have yelled."

"….fine," He responded, a cough at the end.

Alice couldn't understand what he said before fine though she imagined him saying it's fine. "What is with your voice? I can hardly understand you."

Jared coughed again. "Cold," he rasped. "We were… the swamp ..terday," he pushed, clearing his troath when he stopped speaking. Talking was clearly very hard on him.

"I don't think you should talk anymore," Alice said worried. What if he couldn't talk at all anymore because of their phone call? She would feel bad about that.

"…ou tal-k. I …ill liste.." His voice started to fall away more.

"What did you say, sweetie?" Alice winced a little as she said it.

She heard him take in a deep breath before speaking. "Talk. …listen." Again he cleared his troath, a little harder this time

Unsure she asked; "I talk, you listen?" There was an affirmative grunt from the other side. "Uh, that is okay I guess." She replied hesitantly.

Alice started chatting away into the phone about her last few days. The exam she had taken that had gone bad, the compliments she had received in etiquette, the drama surrounding Stella with Brandon. Jared gave her a few grunts in response, an odd jumbled hardly understandable sentence there. The more she talked, the more she wanted to ask him about his day, the more she wanted a response from him on what she was telling him. Telling him about her things from this week was nice but it was not the conversation she wanted. She needed his response, his calm view on things, his reassuring tone of voice.

Mid story she let out a big sigh and changed the subject she had been talking about. "Maybe we should hang up. I don't want your voice to get any worse."

"O-okay," he rasped. To Alice's ears he sounded tired. He had been working so hard to keep up with the intense training and to do extra assignments to get his grades back up that this cold was something he really did not need.

An idea came to her mind. "Maybe tomorrow I can sneak into Red Fountain and take care of you while you study." Now that would be nice. She could make sure he took enough rest in between, keep him hydrated and such things. She would be able to spend time with him while he could still study for as long as this cold would let him. For herself she would bring a book to read. While at Alfea she had not had so much time to keep up with her recreational reading.

She had never before pondered on sneaking into Red Fountain. As at Alfea, the opposite gender was not allowed up to the dorms. Contrary to Alfea though, Red Fountain controlled this very strictly. Peer control was higher there than it was in Alfea, where only Griselda seemed to care much about this rule. Despite that Jared had never been in her room before. He was used to keeping to the rules as was Alice normally. Sneaking into Red Fountain would certainly be a challenge. She would have to ask Katy, one of her dorm mates, about how she could best do this.

"B-but…" Jared started.

"No arguments. I'm coming! I miss you and someone needs to make sure you take care of yourself," she spoke resolutely.

He fell silent at the other end, likely not having the energy to protest too much.

"I'm going to hang up now, sweetie. Go to sleep and get some rest," she said. There was an inaudible raspy response back before he hung up.

Alice was used to letting guys make the most effort. This was something her mother had taught her when younger. You always make the guy come to you. The guy should make the most effort. She had always gone by that teaching as mother knows best. Even in her relationship with Jared she had followed it, letting him make most the effort. For the most part he didn't seem to mind, having said he did love to cater to his girl. She was starting to realize though that if she did want to make this work maybe she would have to make more of an effort to cater to his needs.

Her phone beeped, pulling her out of her thoughts. Glancing at it she saw she received a text from Jared. _'Text me tomorrow for the plans to sneak in. I'll figure things out here with Bishop. I miss and love you.' _A huge smile spread over her face as butterflies started darting around her stomach, clutching the phone to her chest. She couldn't wait for the girls to come back and figure out a way to sneak in with them.


	3. 3

**The Many**

\- The word was Reluctance

\- Kyral is from comic issue 88: The examination of Kyral

\- This is set after comic 88. The event in the issue is touched upon in this one-shot so I don't think it is necessary to have read it to read this.

\- In the comic the Winx Club were taking the same class as Roxy, a first year. Since that doesn't make sense I'll ignore that.

\- Thanks to cybercorpsesnake and MikoNoHikari for the reviews on the last one

\- Thanks to Mirage-05 on Deviantart for being my beta!

3.

The hallway outside of the library of Alfea was bustling with students. On the short break between classes this morning many students were heading in and out of the library to find books of their subject for multiple essays that would be due this and next week. Other students were trying to find extra study materials for theoretical but also practical examinations. As it was heading near the end of term all classes were busy preparing for their end of term examinations and assignments to be turned in.

Kyral could hear the stern voice of the librarian, Barbatea, answering the questions of students. She winced. Her right hand rubbed over the bare skin of her upper right arm and her eyes darted around to anywhere but the entry to the library.

"What is up with you?" Roxy asked as she regarded her friend and roommate.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

Roxy raised an eye brow. "You haven't been in there, have you?"

Hesitantly Kyral answered, "No, I haven't." She did not look at Roxy. She did not need the judgment. Again.

"You should," Roxy said. "You need those books for that essay regardless."

"You could go and get them for me…" Putting up big eyes and a pouty mouth, she finally looked at Roxy.

The pink haired fairy rolled her eyes as she grabbed Kyral by an arm. "No, you've been putting off talking to Miss Barbatea for too long."

"Who says I need to talk to her?" Kyral demanded, a slight defiant tone to her voice that she often used when she felt pushed into a corner or she didn't want to do something.

"You," Roxy said. "Otherwise you wouldn't be so reluctant to go in to the library." She tugged at Kyral's arm and took her across the hallway to the entry of the library.

Despite the many students currently walking around the library there hung a silence in the library. Barbatea wanted there to be silence there so that those that wished to study could do so in peace. For the most part the students respected the librarian and followed her rules. Kyral hadn't.

Barbatea was standing at a table, handing Yomi, a classmate of Kyral and Roxy, a book. When she turned around she spotted Kyral and Roxy. Her eyes drew to slits and she readjusted her glasses. "Well," she said. "Are you here to sneak into the restricted area again, Kyral?"

Kyral winced at the hard edge in the librarian's tone and could hardly look at her. It was easier to look at her feet. A part of her wanted to turn around and go out of the library straight away.

Roxy was going to have none of that though. She put a hand on Kyral's back and pushed her forward. "Kyral actually has something to say." Then she put a few steps backwards and slowly turned to head towards a study table. She was giving them room.

Kyral could feel the scrutinizing look on her from Barbatea. She swallowed hard. "I wanted to apologiz-"

"For what?" she asked.

"For sneaking into the restricted area, using the spell, wrecking half of the library," Kyral said. Her shoulders were slumped and her head still hung low. This was not how she usually would approach teachers or others of authority. Normally she was more challenging and direct, sometimes bordering on being disrespectful. Her mistakes were certainly a cause for remorse and humility though. Something she often wasn't very good at as her parents liked to point out.

There was also her fear that the librarian wouldn't accept her apology. She wasn't sure if she could deal with that _rejection_. It wouldn't be the first time though. She remembered that Barbatea had mentioned to the Winx that for the time being she would not go to the principal. Of course that meant that she would probably still do it. Just not right away.

Barbatea pursed her lips. "And?"

"And minimizing you of course," Kyral said. "I'm really sorry about that." She really was.

Barbatea regarded her. "Do you realize what you did was wrong?" she asked.

"Yes," Kyral looked up. "I mean, I never should have wanted to use a spell to make a short-cut on learning for an exam in the first place." Instead she had accidentally cast a summoning spell that had brought an elemental golem forth. The golem had caused a lot of damage to Alfea. Even the Winx Club, who had been at Alfea at the time, had trouble with the creature as it fed on magic. In the end she had helped the Winx out by using a minimizing spell on the Golem so it was harmless.

Even worse was that before casting the spell Barbatea had caught her while she was sneaking into the restricted area. Instead of letting the librarian take her away for that offense, she minimized her and had put her into a trash can. Later the golem had headed back to the library and because of her actions Barbatea had been in serious danger. A pang of guilt went through her stomach. The golem had also hurt Yomi. She had been trying to make up for that by trying to help out the black haired fairy with her school and such. Roxy said she was sucking up. Yomi, not understanding why, didn't know why _judgemental_ Kyral of all people was being so nice to her and was very hesitant on accepting her help.

Kyral had wanted to be the best without the effort. Through Roxy she had come to realize that getting good grades through using magic spells would not let herself or others be proud of her. It was the easy way out. Momentarily she thought of her strict parents.

"You have not received any punishment, have you?" Barbatea asked.

Kyral shook her head. "No, I wanted to thank you for not going to the Principal or Griselda. I-"

"Hmm." Barbatea adjusted her glasses again, then placing her hands in front of her body. "Do you think you deserve punishment?"

Obviously, she'd just rather not do the punishment. She knew though that this was once again not taking responsibility for her actions, like wanting to take the easy way out. "I do deserve punishment," she said reluctantly. "I can report myself right now if you wish."

"No, I don't think that is necessary, Kyral." Barbatea said, a smile appearing on her lips.

"Really?" she asked surprised. This talk with the librarian was taking a very different turn. One she had not expected. Maybe Barbatea wasn't so bad after all…

Barbatea stepped closer and put a hand on Kyral's arm. "I think we can find a fitting punishment ourselves. What do you think of working in the library, organizing books for me, starting next term?" She guided Kyral to the book cases. "Maybe we can find a good use for your talent with minimizing spells too."


End file.
